Moscow

(mos'ko,) [Ru . MOSKWA,] a city of Ru ia in Europe, C. of a govt. of same name, and a metropolis of the empire, is situate on the Moskwa, 400 m. S.E. of St. Petersburg. Its principal architectural feature is the Kremlin, an immense pile of buildings, comprising within its limits the Imperial Palace, the Archiepiscopal Palace, the cathedrals Mosquito, of the As-Mosquito sumption and of Povrovskoi, and the churches ofSt. Michael and the Annunciation. It also contains the Belfry of I van Veliki, and Mo es, the famous "great bell of Moscow," the weight of which is 360,000 lhs. M. has considerable textile manu fs., and is the entrepôt of an important commerce. This city, founded in 1147, became in 1300 the capital of Ru ia(or Muscovy as it was then called),and re-Fig. 480.-MUSCOVITES. mained so till 1703, when the seat of govt. was removed to St. Petersburg. In 1812 the French occupied M. as their winter quarters, which they were speedily made to evacuate through the inhabitants firing two-thirds of the city, thus literally burning the enemy out. Pop. 399,321. Moselle, (mo-zěl',) a W. river of Europe having its source in the Vosges, in N. Lat. 48°, E. Lon. 70°, and emptying into the Rhine at Coblentz, after a N.N.E. course of 300 m.-A former dept. of France, now forming part of the German prov. of Alsace-Lorraine. Its cap. was Metz. Moses, (mo'zěz.) (Script.) A great Hebrew prophet and legislator, and son of Amram of the Levitical tribe, was B. in Egypt, abt. 1570 B.c. In pursuance of a royal command that all male infants of Hebrew birth should be destroyed, M., to escape this fate, was laid in a basket among a clump of bulrushes on the banks of the Nile, and there discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh, who adopted him as her son. When arrived at a ripe manhood, M. began to form plans for the deliverance of his race from bondage, and incurring by so doing Egyptian mistrust, he fled to Midian, where he served as a shepherd till his 80th year. Then he is said to have been the recipient of the Lord's commands to guide the children of Israel out of captivity into the Land of Canaan. He accordingly conducted them through the Red Sea into the Wilderne , and became their apostolic chief and lawyer, composing for them the code since known as the Mosaic Dispensation, and writing, as it is supposed, the book of Genesis and other parts of the Pent a teuch. After appointing Joshua as his succe or, M. died on Mt. Pisgah, at the patriarchal age of 120 years. a river of Ru ia in Moskwa. (mos'kwah,) or MOSKOWA, Europe, rising in the govt. of Moscow, and falling into the Oka, at Colomna, after an E. course of 200 m. In 1812, at the village of Borodino on the banks of this stream, an obstinate battle was fought bet. the French and Ru ian armies, in which the latter retreated. The lo on both sides in killed and wounded was not le than 80,000 men. To the French this battle is known as that of Moskwa; the Ru ians prefer to call it Borodino. Moslem. (mözlěm,) Mu ulman, (müs'sl-măn.) Same as MOHAMMEDAN (q. v.). Mosque, (mõsk.) [From Ar. mesgiad, a place of worship.] Among the Mohammedans, a temple or place of religious worship. They are square buildings, generally built of stone in the Moresque or Saracenic style of architecture. Before almost every M. is a large court, planted with bushy trees, in the centre of which, or and era vestibule paved with marble, are fountains for the prescribed ablutions of the Mu ulmans; and a small gallery, on which the apartments of the priests, ., abut, is usually attached to these courts. The interior adornments consist chiefly in lamps and carpets; the direction towards which the worshippers must turn when in prayer, that is, Mecca, is denoted by a niche 1 or a tablet called Kebla, inscribed with verses of the Koran. (müs-ke'to.) (Zool.) See CULICIDE. Territory, or Mosquitia, a tract of coast-land in Central America, forming the E. portion of Nicaragua, and washed by the Caribbean Sea; bet. N. Lat. 110-16º, W. Lon. 83° 10′-86°. Area, 26,000 sq. m. Its line of seaboard presents many lagoons, and is fringed by innumerable keys and small reefs and islets. Its W. border is mountainous, and its soil fertile, furnishing dye woods and drugs in abundant variety. This territory is peopled by the Mosquito Indians, under the protectorate of the English until 1860. C. Blue fields. (mos's iz.) [ From A. S. meos.] (Bot.) In ordinary language, any minute small-leaved cryptogamic plants. Thus, the Lycopod i a are called club-mo es, whilst some lichens are known as Iceland and reindeer mo es. But, in systematic Botany, the term is confined to the O. Musci or true mo es. Such plants are simple-leaved, without spiral ve els or stomata; their spores, or reproductive matter, are enclosed in cases called sporangia or thecæ, mounted on a fine stalk, and covered by a cap or calyptra, which drops off as the fruit ripens. And what is very singular, they have cases called antheridia, containing a powdery matter, among which are minute bodies which swim about freely in water. The M. have not any known use. They are found in cool, airy, and moist situations, chiefly in temperate climates; in woods, upon the trunks of trees, on old walls, the roofs of houses, . Some of them are entirely aquatic. About 1400 species are known, and new species are discovered every year. Mosul,(mo's ool,) a city of Turkey in Asia, C. of a pasha lic of same name, comprising the greater part of Turkish Kurdistan. It is situate on the Tigris, 193 m. N.N.W. of Bagdad, and is much reduced from its former importance. On the opposite side of the river are the ruins of ancient Nineveh. Pop. variously estimated from 20,000 to 40,000. [s. 619]